New and improved: Musgrave 2.0

Northern Colorado’s representative in Congress is wearing a new face these days, and it may not be one her constituents are used to seeing.

She’s been spotted pumping gas for voters, hugging her ideological foe Mark Udall and walking door-to-door in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley, making sure constituents hear her name as often as possible.

Coloradans, meet Marilyn Musgrave, version 2.0.

Before last year’s election, U.S. Rep. Musgrave was a relatively rare sight in her district and was certainly never spotted hobnobbing with shoppers in Old Town boutiques, soliciting their opinions about local and national issues. Musgrave was rarely seen in public, let alone at gas stations filling Fort Collins residents’ minivans. Locally, Musgrave was known as much for her lack of accessibility as she was for her support of controversial issues like the constitutional ban on gay marriage she sponsored in the House of Representatives. During last fall’s election season, for instance, northern Colorado media invested months of organization, negotiating and convincing before Musgrave agreed to appear at a debate with her two opponents.

Then, in November 2006, something changed. Musgrave narrowly won a third term — with the lowest winning percentage, 46 percent, in all of Congress.

In a letter to constituents that ran in area newspapers, Musgrave said she “heard from the voters” and would strive to continue representing Colorado.

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Suddenly, gay marriage and abortion were absent from her message machine, which now focused on trumpeting her work with Democrats. It wasn’t a complete about-face — she continued to quietly jab those in the other party by referring to them as “Democrat representatives,” a truncated term that irks members of the Democratic Party — but overall, she struck a bipartisan tone.

“I am confident I can work with our state’s four Democrat representatives, senator and others by expanding my current record of working in a bipartisan fashion,” Musgrave wrote. “Coloradans have witnessed during the past four years my willingness to work alongside lawmakers of the Democratic Party and to take tough stands against Republican Party leadership when necessary.”

Musgrave and her staff have repeated that reminder of past actions since version 2.0 appeared — that Musgrave has always been, and is simply continuing to be, bipartisan, visible and accessible to her constituents.

Indeed, Democrats have noticed the change.

“I think she has done some bipartisan things that she should get credit for, but it does not change her overall voting record, which has been pretty much down the line with President Bush,” said Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party.

Republicans say Musgrave has always been responsive, but they admit they’ve noticed the new, more accessible version.

“I would say that I think Congresswoman Musgrave is a lot more visible than what she was given credit for even previous to 2007,” said Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. “I think she worked hard before this, but I also would concede that she does seem to be at least having more visible events in the district.”

Both sides believe it’s good for more constituents to hear Musgrave’s beliefs, so more people will know where Musgrave stands — a good thing to her staff, who believe most people in the region agree with her, and a good thing from the perspective of Democrats, who believe most people don’t.

“When you look at her voting record, I think it’s very clear where she sits on a lot of issues people care about,” Waak said.

That record is where the true test of Musgrave’s new version will come, said John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University and an expert in state politics.

“If the voting record is consistent to the one in the past, I think you might want to conclude that this is an effort to change clothes, not change the person,” he said. “On the other hand, if there is some shift in her voting record, then there’s more to it.”

While her beliefs have stayed consistent, her work with Democrats has been mostly friendly this year. She’s appeared on more than one occasion with Udall, the U.S. representative and Democratic Senate candidate from a town outside that liberal bastion, Boulder. She has bucked other members of her party and joined with U.S. Rep. John Salazar, another Democrat, to oppose the U.S. Army’s stalled plan to expand its training site in southern Colorado, inside Musgrave’s district.

Musgrave said at a meeting last month that she’s always worked well with Democrats; the media just never focused on it, so she took matters into her own hands. To that end, her staff started a newsletter in February called “Bi-Partisanship Works.”

The e-newsletter, sent by Musgrave’s communications director Aaron Johnson, highlights work she is doing with the other side. The first e-mail went out Feb. 9, and similar newsletters have followed about once a week.

One could argue, however, that many of her bipartisan actions are things that can hardly be called controversial. For instance, Musgrave recently joined the Congressional Bike Caucus.

Other bi-partisan actions have been more controversial, however. Musgrave caused a stir in the delegation with her opposition to the Army’s plans to expand its training site at Pion Canyon in southern Colorado, which led to nasty comments by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, a friend of Musgrave’s.

Even more obvious than the newsletter has been Musgrave’s renewed focus on her constituents, which includes photo-ops like pumping gas and pouring coffee, but also attempts at substantive events like “listening sessions” on the local economy and the farm bill, among other topics.

Straayer said the focus on bipartisanship at those events presents a delicate line for Musgrave to toe.

“On the one hand, if you start moving — even appearance-wise — too far too quickly in the Democratic direction, you’re likely to lose some of that hard-core base that she’s dependent on,” he said. “At the same time, it might have some effect of softening the right-wing edges that she has.”

Musgrave said her door is always open. “Just call the office or come on in. We don’t want to exclude anyone.”

Guy Short, Musgrave’s chief of staff, said she realized, however, that her open-door policy wasn’t enough for some constituents.

“The congresswoman heard the criticism that she wasn’t available. She’s a humble enough person that if she’s being criticized for something — I think it was a surprise to her — but she said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna respond to that and charge the staff with coming up with creative ways to meet with constituents,'” Short said.

Straayer said Musgrave 2.0 might fare better in the future — at least in some of her constituents’ eyes. But Democrats and others predisposed to opposing Musgrave will not buy her new image, he said.

“Many of them will just write this off as window dressing,” he said.

And the true results of Musgrave’s new image are not in, he said.

“The test as to whether there’s any depth to that is yet to come. The test is in terms of her voting record, and time will tell whether the … shift is real or whether it is only apparent.”